Victims' Relatives May Claim Photographs From 9/11 Ruins

By DAVID W. DUNLAP

Published: January 8, 2005

They could scarcely be more prosaic. They could hardly be more precious.

In one picture, someone is being presented with an enlarged check, maybe a jumbo paycheck. In another, someone holds a fishing pole with a good-sized fish dangling at the end. People are seen toasting one another in conference rooms. Or sunning themselves under palm trees. Or playing volleyball. Or gazing out over the world 110 stories below from the observation deck of the World Trade Center.

These are among 8,000 personal photographs that once adorned desk tops, office walls and cubicle partitions in the twin towers. They were recovered from the ruins, scanned and digitally restored in 2002 by the Eastman Kodak Company. Now, officials hope to reunite them with the victims' relatives and the survivors of the Sept. 11 attack.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced yesterday that it will open a limited-access Web site this month on which family members of victims can examine the images. If they find ones they recognize, they can make a claim to the New York Police Department, which has custody of the pictures. Last month, the police announced a database to aid in the return of jewelry found in the wreckage.

Relatives will be notified of the procedure by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which expects to reach about 5,000 families by mail. The Web site will later be opened to trade center tenants and employees. It will not be made public and, for privacy's sake, the pictures on the Web site cannot be downloaded or copied.

''This is an excellent way for us to do something that could -- and I emphasize could -- help the families who lost a loved one on that day, and the survivors,'' said Kenneth J. Ringler Jr., executive director of the authority. It may be a tough emotional journey, however, and would take about four and a half hours of continuous viewing if one spent only two seconds on each image.

''We want to give them as much time as they need,'' Mr. Ringler said.

Lillian Valenti, chief of the Port Authority office of medical services, said the site was designed to be flexible. ''It will give an individual a sense of control,'' she said. ''It gives you choices: 'No, I don't want to see them at all'; 'I'd like to, but perhaps not now'; when to see them; with whom; how long.''

Ms. Valenti has looked at 100 photographs herself. Even this small sampling, she said, underscored the diversity of the trade center's population.

''Photographs are a way of joining your personal world to your work world,'' she said, as she described a few pictures to convey a sense of their power, without divulging any telltale specifics. ''Owners would recognize a house, a school, a park,'' Ms. Valenti said, ''a living room, a sofa, the pillow on the sofa, the magazine on the coffee table.''

One day, she expects to visit the Web site herself. Her office was on the 62nd floor of the north tower. And, yes, she kept photographs there.